章節 1: live & let die
01
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Let's shake things up a bit, shall we? I honestly was contemplating where to put the author's notice (should it be before or after the chapters...or both?) - though considering that this work is under 'T or PG-13' rating as it mentions situation that would require some form of 'trigger warning' (like assault, blood, suicide, violence, etc.) - I ultimately decided to address them head-on, so here we are. And with that out of the way, allow me to just reiterate one thing: PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
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A jackrabbit walked across the tarmac in the humid August wind as he saw his own name going over the private network: Savage, Jack. Zootopia Diplomatic Passport 0034216, and the replies coming in from different machines: Negative, Negative, Negative. And finally, from the ZBI: Positive. Await Further Instructions. Then there was some slight traffic on the circuit with the ZCIA and after a beat: ZBI to SAVAGE007: All Clear. Proceed, which the bored kudu airport official out front raised an eyebrow at and handed him back his passport with the proverbial "Hope you enjoy your stay, Mr. Savage."
He merely shrugged his shoulders and followed the remaining passengers through the wire fence towards a door marked as ZOOTOPIA HEALTH SERVICES. To Jack, of course, it was only a routine, but he also disliked the idea of his dossier being in the possession of the government. The chief tool of his trade was after all his anonymity. His real identity and every information that went on record in any file diminishes his value, or worse, becomes a threat to his life. He felt like a pawn, in the hands of others. Colleagues, in this instance, but still. . .
"Mr. Savage?" Jack turned to spot a nondescript middle-aged ibex in plain clothes treading forward from the corner of the health service building.
"My name's Irv Bexley. What an honor to meet you!"
They shook paws.
"I hope you had a pleasant trip back. If you would please, follow me?" The last batch of passengers had passed inside. Bexley turned to the right, away from the building as the lone airport security held open a gate in the high boundary fence. There was an exchange of amateurly discreet nods.
Jack paid them no mind and waited for the black Buick to stop in front of them. Its engine quietly sighing into a halt as they climbed in. All three of his suitcases were in front next to the driver. He couldn't imagine how quickly they have been extracted from the luggage area before trolleying over to ZOOTOPIA CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT.
"Let's go, Alan." the ibex sank back as the limousine surged forward, slipping quickly through the main road. The driver chose the maintenance tunnel 6B and they soared across Acacia Alley, Ficus Underpass, and South Canyon until they were amongst the petrol-smelling roots of the stressed-concrete jungle.
"I must say, that's certainly one of the reddest carpets I've ever seen. I was in the impression it'd be an hour before I get through Immigration. Although I have to thank you for the assistance."
"You're very welcome, Mr. Savage." The ibex smiled and offered him a cigarette from a fresh pack of Marlburrows. "Madam wants to make your stay comfortable. Anything you need, just say so. You've got a lot of interested parties here in Zootopia."
The jackrabbit eyed him narrowly and then smirked. "I haven't the slightest idea why I'm back here. Though it seems both the authorities and individuals, such as your employer, are keen that I should be a privileged guest of the city I kept from savagery, once again."
Bexley opened a briefcase on the seat beside him and took out a white envelope which he gave to Jack. "There's a fifty-thousand-dollar cheque in there, Mr. Savage." He held up his hoof as the jackrabbit started to speak. "I hate to say this, but the disposal of this money through my hooves will be at the expense of another's life. I'm a hit-mammal, you see?" he added, as Jack continued to dubiously hold the envelope in his paws. "And the one I am tasked to kill is none other than you."
(-from Chapter 1, Live Let Die, Book 3 of The Savage Seas series, by J. L. Hopps.)
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The fact that the arctic fox wasn't surprised when she saw Ransom's disapproving gaze was possibly more disturbing than her boss himself. The raccoon popped open the hood of a 2009 Puggeot Expert and stuck most of his upper body inside. She could hear him talking, but with her earbuds in place and the toned-down whirring of heavy machinery in the background, his words came out muffled.
"Sorry, what was that?" Skye asked when she pulled the accessory off her ears.
"I said, didn't I remind you not to leave the front desk unattended?!" he yelled, clearly unimpressed.
"Woah, no need to shout boss-"
"And that's another thing!" Reprovingly pointing a screwdriver at the wires dangling from the vixen's neck. "How many times, have I told you, Winters? No lollygagging or crooning or using your outdated ICarrot during work hours."
"Uh, boss, audiobooks help me focus-" The ringing of the telephone saved the vulpine from yet another lecture on not being a smart-aleck and losing one's job.
Ransom listened for a while after answering with their rehearsed business welcome greeting. "Our apologies. We'll have it ready by lunch tomorrow." He said finally, looking at the digital clock above his head. "No, just the regular fee." He tapped his paw pads against the counter. "On the house, yes. Bye!" He hung up the phone with a sigh. He turned back at her and flatly said: "Great!"
"Is everything okay, boss?"
"No, thanks to you," he sighed again - probably his twelfth in the entirety of the arctic fox's shift - and went back to the car he was fixing. "That was David Koalabell's camera mammal from ZNN," he started to explain, then patted the front bumper. "They need this in tip-top shape by tomorrow afternoon. He was willing to pay extra for the rush, but some fox decided to listen to that garbage of a story again and missed all his calls."
"I'm sorry, Ransom-" Skye began.
The raccoon shook his head. "Just go home Skye, it's almost closing time, anyway. I'll manage."
With an apologetic nod, the vixen grabbed her sweater, tied it around her waist, and stepped outside the repair shop. She let out a long exhale as she made her way back to her apartment building.
The location was not that shady looking compared to Happy Town, but with predators - not to mention the bottom feeders of the hierarchy like herself - comprising half of the tenant population, mammals would often find themselves immediately scurrying away. Which was why the vulpine was baffled to hear voices from the nearby corner.
"Come on, don't be like this," a hushed male voice said.
"No, screw you!" hissed by the other, a female this time. "Who the hell do you think you are, huh? You're just an arrogant prick!"
'Holy shit! Is this really happening? A fight next to my apartment building?' Skye thought as her nosy ass walked towards the commotion. Peaking with just half of her face, she saw an oddly familiar looking rabbit garbed in a black suit with his back on to her and what seemed to be a female dwarf mongoose. The vixen would have found her drop dead gorgeous if she wasn't wearing a neon green popcorn shirtdress bunched up in a corset. She was also fuming with tear stains over her cheeks.
"I don't have time to deal with this," the buck sighed, exasperation laced in his voice. "You need to stop, please."
"I'll stop when I've made sure you'd never be happy," the mongoose seethed with utmost hatred that almost made the eavesdropping arctic fox shiver. "I hope you die a slow and painful death!"
"Ooh ma'am that's a little harsh," Skye whispered to nobody in particular. "He may be an asshat, but he doesn't need to die that-"
All the blood from the vulpine's face drained as she witnessed a tiny paw jabbed something into the rabbit's right armpit, making him scream out in anguish. The helogale tugged her paw back as blood splatter across the sidewalk of the building's entrance. The wounded mammal doubled over in pain, clutching his side as he slowly falls to the ground.
The only working streetlight poorly reflected off the bloody dagger as the female assailant raised her paw again, like she's going to stab him for the second time, but Skye was already on the move - kicking the other female right across its chest and knocking the wind out of her before it stumbled backwards.
"Mother of Karma, lady! Are you crazy?!" the vixen exclaimed, standing like a wall between the mongoose and the rabbit on the ground. "How dare you kill some mammal next to our neighborhood?! We already got bad rep as is and you do this?!
"Don't stick your filthy nose on other mammals' business, bitch." she spat back with a glare. "That jackrabbit deserves to die. Now, get out of my way!"
By Inari's grace, Skye still has adrenaline pumping through her which made her not run away shitless yet. "Madam," she huffed, channeling her con-mammal of a cousin's deescalating techniques, as she placed her paw between the two of them to calm the other female down. "Think this through - he's not worth ending up in jail for."
"I'd never end up in jail," the dwarf mongoose scoffed like she heard something absurd.
"Uh, I'm pretty sure murder would warrant you an arrest."
The helogale was about to retort when the buck on the ground spoke first.
"Jude, I-I've been s-stabbed," he panted into his phone. "Use my location to send h-help...please." Now his voice sounded familiar too, but the arctic fox wasn't sure why. It was still pretty dark in the alley, so it was difficult to make out his other features. Hearing him speak, the crazy lady (that's her name now) started to charge at him again but she cannot possibly be more than enough pounds heavier than the two other mammals present.
With a much forceful kick this time, Skye sent her flying pretty far and rushed towards the rabbit behind her.
"Can you stand up?" She bended down to gently support him. He let out a painful grunt as she helped him towards her apartment building. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the crazy lady beginning to stand up again, then (as if she had an epiphany) bolted out to who knows where. With her finally gone, they made it on the entryway floor, slowly but steadily.
'Damn it, Skye! Why'd you have to be so nosy?' the arctic fox thought, then gasped as she caught sight of the building's carpeted floor. 'That's too much blood!' her eyes traveled to the right side of his upper torso, which reminded her of the rodent-sized fountain she loved dipping her paws in back at Vole Garden. His blood continued to spill out of him, soaking his once white button up as well as her welcome mat.
"Hold on, let me." Skye panicked, falling to her knees and helping the buck to remove his suit jacket. Once his right arm was freed, the vixen began examining his wound more closely. "Oh no! She must have cut your axillary artery. You're bleeding out!"
The vixen pried her cotton sweater off her midsection and tried wrapping it around his chest but the blood just seeped through.
"Shit!" Groaning, she kept her eyes on the slightly open wound. "I might need to pinch it, myself."
Skye shakily keyed her door then sprinted towards the kitchen. It was at that moment she realized how grateful she was of the 'Savage Seas' author (not to mention her stories) for devoting a whole chapter about the most lethal places assailants strike their knife and how to survive them. Now with a pair of scissors in tow, she cut the sleeves above the wound and positioned herself where she could easily reach it.
"Uh, this will hurt like a bitch," the arctic fox told him nervously, her paws hovering over the stabbed area.
"Don't care, just do it!" the silver lapin panted, as if he was on the verge of passing out.
She gritted her teeth and counted loudly before pushing two paw pads (with her claws retracted, of course) into the wound, making the rabbit scream out in torture.
"For foxes' sake, where the hell is it?" the vixen kept trying find the severed artery between the folds. The buck's wails of agony were enough to send shivers through her spine as her vision became blurry from tears. "I know it hurts but it's the only way you'll live, okay?" His striped shoulder twitched as she tried to apply more pressure, her whole-body trembling. "I'm not going to let you die. Just don't move, please."
With a questioning gaze, her sapphire eyes finally met with his cerulean ones, as he blinked in contorted pain. With a gasp that almost locked her jaw, Skye Winters turned completely frozen. Her heart almost leaped up to her throat when her still gaping muzzle all but proclaimed:
"Oh my gosh! You're Jack Savage!"
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The characters, miscellaneous, and settings are owned and trademarked by Disney, and in no way, shape, or form do I claim ownership over them nor the world of Zootopia (aside, of course, from my original characters and some fictional places that I added) - though I would never not thank Byron Howard and Richard Moore for giving us these anthropomorphic mammals that we love to hate (I don't know, Jack and Skye are growing on me...particularly in this work) or hate to love (still a Nick and Judy shipper...if you have an issue - there's the door!) because without them, this retelling would not have existed.
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furandtails
furandtails I would like to give credit where it is due (especially if I just stumble upon things on Pinterest) but I unfortunately couldn't find the original artist/s for the cover image I used for this story (as well as my Avatar/Profile picture) and if by chance you know them or their works, please don't hesitate to send me a PM or comment their name/s so I could credit them properly. And that also goes to my readers from (or have a background in) the medical fields - I try my best to be as factually correct as possible but hey...I'm still human (unfortunately) after all so - please be kind and help me amend my mistakes by pointing them out (I'm always open to both feedback and criticisms).
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